I got new edits of Deadly Valentine posted this weekend and Tuesday offered the book for free for one day at Amazon. Being a new indie author, I don’t know what constitutes good stats when it comes to free offers. I suspect my numbers aren’t stellar because I didn’t promote the free offer as I should have. Still, I feel good about 2200+ in a single day. Yes, the book was free, but people still have to be intrigued by the cover and blurb to make the effort to download and read. The book (at last check) had reached number #6 in free Kindle mystery books involving women sleuths and #141 in free Kindle books overall. Again, I don’t know if those are great stats, but I feel good about them. It gives me something to strive to beat the next time.

While I’m happy about the results, I’m terrified by them as well. Initial reviews are good, but that doesn’t mean they’ll all be good. I’m worrying about what people won’t like. Will they still find typos that were missed and be distracted by them? Will they like the dialogue (which an agent said was my strong point)? Will they find the story believable? Will they like Tess and Jack? Whoever said that writing requires bleeding on the page is right because when you send it out into the world to be enjoyed and judged, you feel raw and vulnerable. I’ve told myself that not everyone will like the book and may take the opportunity to tell me so through a review. It’s a part of writing. Even the most celebrated writers get negative reviews. So I’ll have to try to keep it all in perspective and hope that more people enjoy the book than don’t.

And as stressful as this whole process is, I’m back for another helping as I work on the third edit of Old Flames Never Die, book two in the Valentine series. I hope to have the book available this fall (Sept/Oct).